Buon Giorno from Florence. It's been a full on few days, with lots of Italian tourists around as the Christmas holidays last the 12 days of Christmas here. We arrived a few days ago and spent our first afternoon getting orientated and exploring around the historic city with its many amazing buildings. We poked our nose in at the beautiful duomo (cathedral), which has incredibly ornate green marble adorning the outside and checked out all the statues on Piazza della Signoria, before climbing up to Piazzalle Michelangelo for fantastic views over the city, counting all 201 steps up there!

The next day we got up early to beat the crowds to the Ufuzzi, we didn't. Bit of a frustrating morning, but we saw all the masterpieces. We got away from the crowds afterwards and found a wonderful place for lunch with no English, but of a lucky dip but you can't go wrong in Italy! After checking out all the gaudy jewellery shops on Ponte Vecchio we decided to head to the Galleria Dell'Accademia where they had a section devoted to the Medecci's instrument collection, which was fascinating. They had some beautiful Stratavari violins. Ofcourse the highlight was Michelangelo's David. We weren't expecting much as we have seen so many photos and replicas, but it is something else in real life!

Yesterday we decided to do a day trip and headed off to Pisa to see the infamous leaning tower as well as the beautiful square and cathedral next to it. It was a nice town, pretty quiet, but there was a neat Keith Harring mural. We then headed to Lucca, a beautiful walled town, which we had fun exploring the old streets and had a delicious Tuscan lunch!

This morning was spent going to the food market in Florence we only just found out about, but made the most of with breakfast and lunch there and supplies for the next few days! Found the best coffee we've had yet! We also visited the Galileo Museum, which was neat. Had lots of beautiful old scientific instruments, including a stunning large model of Ptolemy's celestial spheres and Galileo's only surviving telescopes. It explained all of his key experiments and inventions well via video as well as others, highly recommend! After we headed to Sante Croce cathedral and enjoyed a delicious gelato from an amazing place we found! Now off to Rome on the slow train...